Monday, November 25, 2013

An Irish Policeman

by Sean Murphy, from Sheila Connolly's County Cork Mysteries

Thank you for welcoming me here today. My
name is Sean Murphy and I’m a garda at the Skibbereen station in County
Cork, in the Wild West of Ireland.Oh, right—most likely you haven’t
heard the term “garda.”That’s the Irish
word for a police officer. The Garda Siochana (which means “the Guardians of
the Peace”) was founded in 1923, and there are now over 14,000 of us in the
country. I’m based at the Skibbereen station in the Cork West Division. We’re
not a large station, neither the district nor the divisional HQ. I come from near Skibbereen, and I’m happy to serve here.Don’t let on, but solving the few crimes that happen here is easy because often we know everyone involved.And the crimes aren’t often serious ones. The crime rate in Ireland is pretty low, save for the big cities like Dublin and Cork.

Hear me go on now! I wanted to talk about Maura Donovan, who found herself
running Sullivan’s Pub in Leap (a town no more than a few miles from Skib, but
far smaller) not long ago.She appears
to have brought a crime wave with her from America.

I’ve been a garda only a
couple of years, and I really like the work.But it's Maura that's keeping me busy.First
there was the pair of bodies, one of them old, the other new.No, she had no hand in the killing of either
of the poor victims, but she had a story that led to solving the case.Now there’s been another death, and the most
likely suspect is a visiting American who just happened to show up at Maura’s
pub.

It’s
not like Maura goes looking for trouble.She’s really a nice girl.She works
hard, but she’s new to Ireland so she’s still learning our ways. I think she’s
still deciding whether she wants to stay around, although it would be a shame
to walk away from a nice steady business like Sullivan’s.I hope she stays, if she’d only give finding
bodies a rest.

Welcome

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